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Sunday, January 9, 2011

New Blog

Thought I would all let you in on a new blog Platte Valley Farmer about farming in central Nebraska. It also so happens to be written by my brother Don. I borrowed this photo from his blog...it is the farm that I grew up on. It has made a lot of changes since I lived there, one being the house. I grew up in a large square two story house and my parents built the home you see in this photo the year after I graduated from high school. My brother Don and his family live there now.

Also when I grew up, my father had some cattle feedlots but expanded the operation in later years. Now there are no cattle on the place as my brother has switched to all grain farming (read his blog for more info.) That is the ebb and flow of any enterprise. I think this photo was taken at the height of the cattle feeding operation with many cattle on feed. If I can manage my camera or the scanner I will post an aerial photo in a few days of what looked like at an earlier time.

The farm is located in the Platte River valley in central Nebraska but at the north edge of the valley. You can see the pastures on the rolling hills beyond the corn fields. Growing up we would occasionally hike up to those hills and in the winter would get out the ice skates and drive to a pond near our pasture a few miles away from our house and spend a few hours ice skating. My dad had skates too and would drive us up and skate with us....what fun memories. (I have two sisters and two brothers so I have 4 siblings with 10 years between the oldest and youngest who is my brother Don, the new blog writer. I am 9 years older than Don and he was just a little kid when I left home to attend college.)

It seemed like we had colder winters when I was a child than we have had for many years as I remember skating a lot. Either kids didn't skate or we had warmer winters when our daughters were young but this Christmas our two granddaughters received ice skates and are skating on a pond near their home and loving it. They did get in a few times of skating before it warmed up after Christmas. They had to put them away for a while as their pond was melting a little and it was just too dangerous. The last few days it has gotten very cold and is snowing so maybe it will freeze solid again so they can skate some more.

Shoulder update....I am doing better and have not had to take any pain pills since Friday afternoon. I still have some aches but no worse than before surgery so can deal with that, of course I have not moved it too much either. I am even typing this blog with two hands....Yay! I just have to angle my sling over the keyboard and away I go. I still am icing the shoulder and wearing a sling and will be for a while but am getting along pretty good with one usable arm since I am left handed and it is my right that had the surgery. I will start PT in about 2 weeks but in the mean time I am to do some simple arm swings etc. to keep it as limber as possible.

No sewing for a while I am afraid - I just can't raise that arm too high or for very long.

2 comments:

It was quite interesting to read about your brother, his family and farming. I hope he will continue to blog. Ag education is so important.

It has gotten colder in south central Kansas as well. I can appreciate your comments on skating. I lived in western Kansas as a kid and I thought the winters seemed quite brutal as a kid. I remember jumping into the snow drifts all the time. Not so much anymore. But I guess I'm not looking for the snow drifts so much anymore.

Good to hear that you are doing well from so short a time after your surgery. I'm always amazed at what our doctors and nurses can do. Physical Therapy should be a big help.

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About Me

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I love living on a Nebraska farm and being able to look across the countryside from my sewing room window.